101. Spiritual Reception and the Hierarchy of the Five Senses

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Spiritual vs. Natural Reception #

Thomas makes a fundamental distinction between two kinds of reception:

Spiritual (Immaterial) Reception: The sense receives the form or shape of an object without that form becoming the sense’s own form. The eye receives your shape without the eye itself becoming that shape; the sense receives the sensible form according to its intention, not according to its natural existence. This is the mode of reception proper to all sensation.

Natural (Material) Reception: The sense receives the object’s form as its own quality, losing its previous quality in the process. The marble receives your shape by having its material changed; the water on the stove becomes hot itself. This reception does not constitute sensation—it is a mere alteration of matter.

Thomas’s key insight: If only natural reception were sufficient for sensing, then “all natural bodies would sense when they were altered”—the water on the stove would feel the heat the way you do when touching it. This is absurd; therefore, a spiritual reception is required for sensation proper.

The Hierarchy of Senses by Spirituality #

Thomas arranges the five senses in order of how spiritual (immaterial) their reception is:

1. Sight (most spiritual): No natural change occurs either in the object or the organ. Color is received in the eye without the eye becoming colored, and without the object undergoing alteration to produce sight. This is why we metaphorically transfer the word “seeing” to understanding—both are immaterial.

2. Hearing: The object undergoes natural change (percussion and commotion of air produce sound), but the sense organ itself remains unchanged. The air vibrates, but the ear does not.

3. Smell: The object undergoes natural change through alteration (cooking or heating); something must be altered to emit odor. This is more material than hearing because the alteration is more intrinsic to the object.

4. Taste: A species of touch localized to the tongue; receives sweet and bitter. Both object and organ may undergo change.

5. Touch (least spiritual): Natural change occurs in the organ itself—the hand touching hot metal becomes hot; the tongue becomes moist from flavors. Touch is most material because it requires the bodily organ to receive the quality as its own.

Connection to Beauty and Human Flourishing #

The spirituality of sight and hearing corresponds to their association with beauty (pulchrum). We speak of “beautiful” painting and “beautiful” music, but not “beautiful” food or “beautiful” physical sensations. This is because:

• Beauty is appreciated for its own sake, not for bodily need
• Animals do not appreciate beauty in sight or hearing; they respond only to taste, smell, and touch as practical matters (food, danger, comfort)
• The pleasures of sight and hearing are more elevated because they involve less material change in the body
• The fine arts (painting, music, sculpture, architecture) are “too high for animals and too low for angels” (Osterly’s insight): they engage both reason and senses in a way suited uniquely to human nature

The Role of Reason and Moderation #

Beauty depends on order, symmetry, and moderation—qualities that come from reason. The Romantic period’s music subordinates reason to emotion and therefore lacks the spiritual beauty of 18th-century classical and Baroque music. As Shakespeare writes, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day, thou art more lovely and more temperate”—temperance itself, a virtue of reason, is essential to beauty.

The Common Sensibles #

Magnitude, figure (shape), motion, and rest are called “common sensibles” because they are perceived by multiple senses. They affect the senses per se (as such) but not primarily. A large white wall blinds the eye more than a small one; motion catches the eye more readily than stillness. These common sensibles are reduced to quantity and depend on sensible qualities (like color) as their subject, so they do not move the senses primarily—the sensible qualities do. Thus common sensibles are sensible per se but not sensible per accidens (like recognizing salt by sight alone, without tasting).

The Proper Sensibles #

Each sense has its proper object: color for sight, sound for hearing, smell for smell, taste for taste, and tactile qualities (hot/cold, wet/dry) for touch. Only the third species of quality—sensible qualities that have power to alter things—are objects of sensation. Other accidents (like being just or having the ability to walk) do not act upon the senses as such.

Key Arguments #

Against the Idea That All Sensation Is Mere Alteration #

Objection: If sensation is a kind of alteration, then anything that is altered senses its alteration. The water on the stove is altered by heat.

Response: Not all alteration is sensation. Sensation requires a spiritual reception where the form is received not as the organ’s own quality but as the form of something other than itself. The water becoming hot is merely natural reception—the water’s quality changes. In sensation, your hand receives the heat as the stove’s heat, not as the hand’s own heat (though the hand does become hot). But the sense receives the sensible form according to its intention, its immaterial aspect.

Why Sight Is Most Spiritual #

Evidence:

• We use “seeing” metaphorically for understanding, which is immaterial
• We say “I see what you mean” when understanding becomes clear through any sense (tasting, hearing music)
• This linguistic transfer occurs because sight is the clearest and most immaterial of the senses
• Animals do not appreciate beautiful sights as such; humans uniquely enjoy beauty in visual art
• Vision can perceive objects at great distances without material change to itself

The Distinction Between Sense Qualities and Other Accidents #

Objection: There are nine categories of accidents; why are there only five senses? Why not a sense for substance, quantity, relation, etc.?

Response: Only the third species of quality—sensible qualities—have the power to change and act upon senses as such. Being a just man does not affect the senses; having the ability to walk does not affect the senses (unless one kicks you). Only colors, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile qualities act upon the senses as such, because these are the qualities through which inanimate bodies are altered. Mathematical abstractions (like a geometrical sphere) have no sensible qualities and therefore would not act upon any sense if one walked through it.

Important Definitions #

Immutatio Spiritualis (Spiritual/Immaterial Reception): The mode of reception proper to sensation, in which the sensible form is received according to its intentio (intention, immaterial aspect), not according to its natural, material existence. The sense receives the form as the form of something other than itself.

Intentio (Intention): The immaterial or spiritual aspect under which a sensible form is received; the form according to its being in the sense, not according to its material existence in the object.

Sensibilia Propria (Proper/Private Sensibles): The objects proper to each sense—color for sight, sound for hearing, smell, taste, and tactile qualities. These are the third species of quality; they act upon senses per se and move them primarily.

Sensibilia Communia (Common Sensibles): Magnitude, figure, motion, rest, and number. These affect senses per se but not primarily; they are reduced to quantity and depend on sensible qualities as their subject.

Sensibilia Per Accidens (Accidental Sensibles): Things perceived by sense not as such, but through another power. Example: sugar and salt are indistinguishable by sight alone; one knows them to be salt or sugar through understanding and taste, not through sight as such.

Examples & Illustrations #

Spiritual Reception in Practice #

Michelangelo’s Marble Sculpture: The marble receives your shape by Michelangelo chiseling it out, materially changing the marble. This is material reception. The marble now has your shape as its own shape. But when I see the sculpture, my eye receives your shape without my eye becoming that shape, and without anything being chiseled out in my eye. My eye retains its own shape while receiving your shape immaterially—as your shape, not as the eye’s shape.

The Cat on the Hot Stove: When Berquist’s cat jumped on the stove and singed its paws, the cat’s flesh received the heat as its own quality—natural reception. But the cat also felt the heat in a different way; it sensed the stove’s heat as something other than itself. This sensing is spiritual reception, the mode of sensation.

The Stove and the Kitchen: When cooking sausages and bacon on a grill early in the morning, the neighbors involuntarily smell them. The food is being altered (cooked), and its alteration produces odor. This is the object undergoing natural change. The neighbors’ sense of smell receives this odor through spiritual reception, but the object itself (the food) must be altered to produce the smell. Compare this to the eye: the color of an object does not require the object to be altered in the way cooking does.

Common Sensibles in Sensory Experience #

The Blindingly White Wall: A large white wall in summer sunlight blinds the eye more than a small white wall. Both are white (color—proper sensible), but the magnitude (common sensible) affects the intensity of the sensory change. The common sensible depends on the sensible quality (color) for its operation; you see the magnitude through the color spread over a larger surface.

Motion Catching the Eye: Shakespeare writes, “Things in motion sooner catch the eye than what not stirs.” Motion (a common sensible) affects vision, but because the thing that is moving is changing in relation to sensible qualities distributed across magnitude.

The Hierarchy Reflected in Human Experience #

Beautiful Flowers: Appreciating the scent of flowers from a garden is intermediate between purely material pleasure (eating food) and pure beauty (visual beauty). The smell is pleasant as a smell, not primarily as information about food. This is why Berquist’s daughter can walk through gardens at Logee’s (a famous Connecticut plant nursery) and simply sniff plants smelling of lemon, strawberry, apricot, and licorice—enjoying the smell without eating. This is more spiritual than taste but less spiritual than visual beauty.

Duration of Pleasure: Bodily pleasures (taste, touch) exhibit diminishing returns: the first beer tastes good, the second less so. Eating too much becomes uncomfortable. But visual beauty can sustain pleasure: one can spend hours in art museums (the National Gallery in London, the Uffizi in Florence, the Sistine Chapel) viewing paintings and sculptures without fatigue—only interrupted by crowds. The pleasures of understanding require intellectual effort and eventually cause fatigue. The pleasures of beautiful sensible things (sight and hearing) are most proportioned to human nature because they engage both soul and body, reason and senses, without requiring material deprivation or intellectual exhaustion.

Mozart for the Cat: Berquist played Mozart for his cat; the cat slept through the entire symphony. But when he opened the refrigerator for sandwich meat, the cat immediately appeared beside him. Animals respond to taste and smell (bodily needs) but do not appreciate beauty in music or visual art. This demonstrates that appreciation of beauty is uniquely human and more spiritual than animal sensation.

Accidental Sensibles #

Sugar and Salt: Both appear white to the eye; one might put salt in coffee thinking it is sugar. The whiteness is perceived; the substance (salt vs. sugar) is not. One knows it to be salt or sugar by taste or by prior knowledge (the substance is an accidental sensible—perceived through understanding, not through the sense of sight as such). Similarly, recognizing a friend by voice or appearance is partly accidental: one recognizes them as your friend, not merely as a voice or face (the friendship is not perceived by sense as such).

Rotting Food in the Refrigerator: Food pushed to the back of a shared refrigerator begins to corrupt. As it alters, it emits an odor—the alteration of the object produces the sensible quality. The object undergoes change; the sense of smell receives this without the nose itself altering in the way material reception would require. Eventually, finding the culprit in the refrigerator, the food is no longer edible—its alteration has progressed far enough to render it inedible, though its presence was announced by the sensible quality of smell.

Notable Quotes #

“The marble does have your shape as its own shape now… But my eye receives your shape without it becoming the shape of my eye… And that’s what they call an immaterial or spiritual reception.”

“If only this natural, or what we sometimes call material reception, suffice for sensing, all natural bodies would sense when they were altered… So they’ll pour water on the stove every morning and put out for tea. Would be feeling the heat of the stove… So it’s receiving in that way. That obviously is not sufficient, then, for sensing, is it?”

“You have to have something that’s immaterial or spiritual reception. In all of those ones.”

“As you go down, say, from the eye and then the ear and then the sense of smell and then down to taste and touch, you have less of a spiritual reception, right? And more aspect of a material reception.”

“The fine arts are too high for the animals and too low for the angels.” (Quoting Osterly)

“The pleasure of seeing a beautiful thing, right, and the pleasure of hearing beautiful music, these are pleasures that man has, which the beast does not have.”

Questions Addressed #

Why Is Spiritual Reception Necessary for Sensation? #

If material reception alone were sufficient, then anything that undergoes material alteration would sense. The water on the stove becomes hot (material reception), but it does not feel the heat. The sense must receive the form as the form of something other than itself—spiritually or immaterially—to truly sense. In sensation, the sensible form is received according to its intention (immaterial aspect), not according to its natural existence in the organ.

Why Is Sight More Spiritual Than Hearing, Hearing More Than Smell, Etc.? #

The degree of spirituality corresponds to how much material change is required:

• Sight: No material change in object or organ; purely spiritual reception
• Hearing: Material change in object (air percussion), none in organ
• Smell: Material change in object (alteration/heat)
• Taste: Material change in object and organ
• Touch: Material change in organ itself

The less material change required, the more immaterial (spiritual) the reception, and thus the more perfect and more elevated the sense.

Why Do We Associate Beauty with Sight and Hearing But Not Taste and Touch? #

Because beauty is an immaterial, spiritual object—“that which pleases when seen or heard” for its own sake. Taste and touch address bodily needs (hunger, warmth); their pleasures arise from material deprivation and satisfaction. Sight and hearing can be enjoyed without any bodily need; their pleasures are intrinsically more spiritual. That animals do not appreciate beautiful music or beautiful visual art but do appreciate food confirms that beauty perception is a higher, more spiritual human capacity.

How Do Common Sensibles Differ from Proper Sensibles? #

Proper sensibles (color, sound, smell, taste, tactile qualities) move the senses primarily and per se—they are the third species of quality with power to alter things. Common sensibles (magnitude, figure, motion, rest) affect senses per se but not primarily; they are perceived through and depend upon sensible qualities. A large white wall affects sight through the color spread over a magnitude. Thus common sensibles are sensible per se (truly perceived by sense) but not per accidens (not perceived through understanding or another power).